I became involved with the ACTU by dialing the wrong number one day. To this day, I believe, it was fate that such a simple mistake would “connect” me to a new job and become a member of such a great team. On the day my fingers went crazy on the telephone pad, I spent over forty minutes on the phone with Asha, a former ACTU employee. She picked up the line at the other end and, after putting aside our confusion over the number I dialed, we started talking about the kind of work she and I did and why we did it-I was a financial counselor and insurance benefits specialist. Asha explained to me what the ACTU is about and how important clinical research is for the development of HIV/AIDS treatments. Almost instantly, I was taken by the profound medical knowledge and well-meaning human interest that Asha expressed over the phone.

My conversation with Asha made me realize how little I knew about the role and importance of clinical research for HIV/AIDS. More importantly, I realized that there must be a great need to talk to people about research in terms that are clear and understandable, like Asha did that day. A few weeks later I decided to participate in a clinical trial. During the trial I enrolled in I met Joanne, a former MD at the ACTU. I mentioned to Joanne that I thought it would be a great experience to work as an outreach liaison for the clinic. Joanne went ahead and delivered my thoughts to Jeanne, our research coordinator and, before I knew it, I had a job interview! On June 6, 2002 I became the Outreach Coordinator for the ACTU.

As you can imagine, I like my job very much. It gives me an opportunity to talk to people about HIV/AIDS clinical research, dispel doubts and preconceived notions about clinical trials, and invite them to participate in clinical trials. What I most like about my job is to see how people’s faces change after I explain to them how important and how safe clinical research is at the ACTU. I do enjoy seeing people smile when I tell them that the ACTU does not keep its clinical trials participants in cages-I know this from personal experience. Besides it would be too expensive!